Hi,
I was just looking for some opinions. I just finished up my sophomore year at a large public university. Freshman year I was home doing online classes due to Covid. Fall semester was a little rough due to it being my first time away from home, but spring semester was much better and I generally enjoyed myself. However, in fall semester I was very close to transferring to a small private university 20 minutes from my house. I held off, but now I’m stuck on what I want to do. While school is good at my current university, it is about 3 hours away from home, and I love being around my family. I am blessed enough to have a car on campus, but it’s difficult finding the right balance between enjoying myself at school and at home. I have also found it difficult to find any close friends at school, but I’m sure that’ll happen with time. However, this large university has a great sports scene/school spirit, and just has a great atmosphere. The university I’m considering transferring to would allow me to commute if I want to. Also, a lot of my close friends either go to the school, or go to a school very close by. It is much smaller than my current school, and has a less prominent sports scene, but it is D1. I just want to be able to maximize my college experience, and not have any regrets when I look back on my college years. Any advice/opinions would be greatly appreciated, thank you!
Stay where you are. No matter if you are 20 minutes away or 3 hours away, your family still loves you.
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The best way to enjoy your residential college experience is to stay on weekends.
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And the second best way to enjoy your residential college experience is to wake up on Monday KNOWING you will be there for the weekend so you can plan and have things to look forward to!
Have you joined any clubs, volunteered for projects in the community, joined a religious organization, participated in any non-academic things? That makes it a LOT easier to find your people!
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What are your goals? What are you majoring in, and how would your academic program compare at the smaller school?
All we have to go on here is the “sports scene” and your social support system, both of which will differ between schools but sound potentially fine at both. But the main point here is to get an education, no…?
Stay where you are. I feel for the kids who had to start online, as it was a terrible way to try to integrate yourself fully into college. It’s almost as if this year is your first year, even though it is your second one credits-wise, because you didn’t have a real experience that first year.
I agree with others - get involved on campus through clubs and other groups where you share interests. I would even go so far as to say that you should limit your trips home to holidays and special events. It is hard to jump in with both feet when you are splitting time between two places. It’s great to have your friends from home, and they will always be your friends, but you will grow as a person by meeting new people who have lived different lives than you have up through high school. You won’t maximize your college experience if socially your college feels like high school 2.0.
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I agree with the other posters. Stay where you are and learn to love your residential college experience.
I believe that you will regret your decision to transfer “home”.
I was in a similar spot many years ago. I started off living at my college, but had to return home for financial reasons. When you return home, it will no longer feel like it did before. (Try having a study session at home! It does not work well.) You will actually lose some of that personal time and space that you felt at your school.
If you are returning home, to help your mental health, then that would be a good reason to return home. If you are doing it, however, because your experience has been “meh”, then I think you should stick it out.